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A Nail Fanatic's Glossary

Please do not copy/republish my list but feel free to link to it.
References used for research: MUA, The Blue
First published March 18, 2012 - continuously updated.

Alex - a style of Ikea Furniture that comes in a variety of things such as desks, drawer units and shelving.
Bad Word Break - A break at or above the nail line, the kind with no free edge. (made up by Jenna)
Bag Method - When you cannot decide between several polishes for your next mani. Place them in a bag together, close your eyes and pull one out and that's your next mani!
Balls - Stainless Steel mixing balls used in polish bottles.
Blurple - A Blue Purple colored nail polish
BNNU - Brand New Never Used
BNWS - Brand New With Seal
Boobies - NfuOh nail polish bottles
Chunky - Big pieces of glitter which are "chunky" as compared to others like micro glitters.
Cinderella Hand - The hand that does all the work and gets none of the credit. (ie: non-swatched hand/dominant hand/non-famous hand)
Clean up - Cleaning up skin and cuticle area of nail polish. The Megan Chair method is very popular for this.
Crack - Crackle style nail polish, it cracks apart after application leaving a crackle effect.
Crelly - creme-jelly. Squishy but not translucent enough to be called jellies.
Cuticle - Its not what you think it is!
Dabrushed - A method of painting the nail with glitter polish to get good even coverage and to scoot those big chunks around. It involves both dabbing and brushing at the same time. ~made up by xoxoJen
Decal - When you color in a stamping design with polish while on the stamper or a mat and then either let it dry and apply it, or stamp it down onto the nail from the stamper.
DISO - Desperately In Search Of
Duochrome/Duochromatic - one single pigment that shifts between two different hues. (see multichrome for more than two colors)
Dupe - An exact replica of another polish. Exact color, exact glitter shapes and sizes - if there are any differences its not a dupe.
Dusty - A store that has older nail polishes that are "dusty" from having been there so long. Many a treasure is found at dustys!
Enablers - Those evil nail board folk who encourage you to buy more polish!
Funky French - French manicure done with colors other than the traditional white tips and pink/nude base.
Fimo - a type of clay used to create sticks with designs rolled into them. They're then cut into very thin slices and used to glue on nails for decoration.
Flakie - a very thin, flexible jagged cut/shredded material, much like glitter but not nearly as rigid. These come in a variety of colors and finishes. They're easy to remove, not like glitter removal.
Foil - A type of polish finish in which it looks like foil when applied. Very shiny, metallic looking and opaque.Foil Method - best way (other than a peel off base) to remove glitterbombs. Acetone soaked cotton or felt placed on the glitterbombed nail, covered with foil and left for 5-10 minutes.
Franken - mixing custom polish from existing polishes, preferably while saying "Mwah-ha-ha, it's alive!"
Glequin - loose hex glitter applied in rows and patterns like sequins.
Glitter sammich - The application of various glitters sandwiched between jelly polish.
Gradient - When several shades are blended on one nail with a makeup sponge to go from a dark version to lighter version of the same color, to blend through different colors, make a sunset style background for nail art. The difference between this and ombre is this is multiple colors on one single nail and is sponged on or blended with a brush.
Glitterbomb - Glitter polish layered so that its opaque and on all ten nails.
Gravender - A Gray-lavender colored Nail Polish
Greige - A Greyed Beige colored nail polish
Haul: ... of shame! - Purchases of polish. Up in here we buy in bulk.
HAZMAT!!!! - Inside joke that stemmed from discussion about shipping nail polish and it being a hazardous material. This is the appropriate response to the "No Time" comment.
Helmer - a drawer unit made by Ikea furniture
Holmer- A helmer purchased from Hobby Lobby
Holo - (holographic) Brilliant colors that shift with light, resembling the colors formed by refraction of light through a prism. Holo polishes come in many different forms.
Holo (linear) - Linear holos are made of a very fine pigment. Linear is when you can see the holo in a curved 'line' of each color on your nails just like a real rainbow. (EP Awesomeness is a linear holo, though my photos don't show it off very well)
Holo (scattered) - Not a glitter but fine powder finish and loosely scattered holo. The particle size for these is typically a little larger than the linear holo, but its still not a glitter. (ATC Risen Angel is an example)
Holo (glitter) - Individual glitter pieces that shift holographically on the nail. These typically range from fine in size up to large chunky glitter pieces. (UL 7 Wonders is a holo glitter)
ISO - In Search Of. (see also DISO.)
Jelly - Colored polish that is transparent and colored, it looks like jelly.
Lemming- A nail polish you want so badly that you'd consider giving up your firstborn for it.
Lobster hands - When a nail color clashes with your skin tone & makes your hands look red. (common issue with green polishes)
Mannequin hands - a nude color that matches your skin tone and causes your hands to look like a Mannequin's hands.
Megan Chair Method - Megan Chair is the first blogger who published the clean up method of using a makeup brush dipped in acetone to clean polish off skin and cuticle area. Her original post was at MUA forums in 2009 but all the images have been removed.
Melmer - A helmer purchased from Michaels
MUA - Makeupalley.com
muggle - Taken from the Harry Potter book series and morphed a bit for NB use. A person who does not understand the Nail Polish Enthusiast, an outsider.
Multichrome/Multichromatic - one single pigment that shifts through three or more hues, often referred to as looking like an oil slick.
Nailgasm - Self explanatory I believe!
Nailspiration - nail inspiration, what NB is for
NB - MUA Nail Board
Nip cream - Nipple Cream or 100% Lanolin. Used as cuticle cream by many nail boarders.
NO TIME!! - see Hazmat
NOTD - nail of the day
Nubbins - very short nail length, barely any free edge.
Ombre - Painting each nail in the same hue, but graduating from dark to light. ie; thumb dark purple, index med. purple, middle purple, ring light purple, pinky lightest purple. This is not the same as a gradient.
OOAK - one of a kind
Reverse Stamping - When your image is directional and you make a mirror image of it by way of transferring it from one stamper to another stamper and then onto the nail to get the reverse of the original image.
RIS - Received in a Swap
Ruffian- Kind of a backward French, however the curve follows that of the Lunula. This is often done with bright and dark colors.
Sandwich style - Alternating layers of polish and/or top or base coat. Ex. Base (I like to use Gelous for this), polish, Base, polish, Base, Top coat
Secret shimmer - Shimmer that shows in the polish bottle but not so much on the nail. A lot of companies add this to create depth of color on the nail.
S-flair: Spectraflair, a linear holographic pigment used in many Frankens and indie polishes.
Sheet marks- evil markings from sheets on a fresh mani caused by having gone to sleep before completely dry.
Shrinkage - When nail polish shrinks away from either the free edge or cuticle area of the nail. Seche Vite is often said to cause this to happen.
Skittles - Each fingernail painted in a different color. Brights and pastels are often used for this style.
Smurf fingers - when your cuticles, skin around your nails, nail plates and fingers get stained from removing a blue (or often green, but Smurfs are blue) polish.
Spam - A lot of pretty polish or bottle photos all in one post, it's a good thing!
Squishy - often used to describe a jelly or crelly type polish.
Squoval - squared oval shaping for nails
Swatch - A photo of polish applied to the nail or a nail wheel to show others what the color/finish looks like.
Swatched - When trading/selling this term is often used to indicate the polish is not new and has been used. Be sure to ask the seller if they don't indicate how many nails its been swatched on because all of us have a different definition. It can range anywhere from one nail to all ten.
Taco - When glitter curls up so much its unusable. (It looks like a taco.)
Tape mani - A style of nail art that uses Scotch tape to mask off part of the nail and/or get a straight edge to create a design.
Telmer - A helmer purchased from Target
The Angry Vag - Scrubby Tub or Up and Up NP Remover Dip, these are jars with sponge or brush soaked in acetone. Used for easy nail polish removal.
Tipwear - When polish has worn off at the free edge.
Trigger Mani - Painting the thumb and index finger the same color and then using a different color on the the rest of the nails.
Troll - Instigator, not welcomed at the NB.
UCC Flakes - Ultra Chrome Chameleon flakes that are metallic but soft and easy to remove. They shift through colors like multichrome pigment.
Underwear / Undies - A color painted under a sheer color to make it opaque and hide VNL
VNL - Visible Nail Line, often seen through jelly or sheer polishes. This is the line at the end of your fingertip that meets the free edge. AKA, the smile line
Water marble - A style of nail art that uses a cup of water and polish to create a marbled effect.
YNBB - Your Nails But Better

Please do not copy/republish my list but feel free to link to it.
References used for research: MUA, The Blue, Facebook
First published March 18, 2012 - continuously updated.